FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Sacred Heart men's lacrosse team won its final home game of the regular season Saturday, defeating the Cleveland State Vikings 18-9 at Campus Field on Senior Day.

Prior to the game, Sacred Heart honored the five seniors on the 2017 team – William Crepeault, Chase Godfrey, Bryce Jurk, Brian Masi, and Ryan O'Donoghue. Masi closed out his home career in style with a career-high six assists and seven points. Jurk scored four goals. O'Donoghue led the SHU defense with five groundballs and five caused turnovers. Godfrey had two caused turnovers with two groundballs. Crepault played the final 6:14 in goal.

Cleveland State (4-9) opened the scoring as defenseman Isaac Atencio went coast-to-coast to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead with 11:52 to play in the first quarter. Max Tuttle tied the game 0:22 later, with an assist from Joe Saggese. The Vikings took the lead back with 7:47 to go on a Stephen Masi goal. Cleveland State led 3-2 with 11:07 to play in the second quarter when the Pioneers exploded for a 7-1 run to end the half. Masi, Saggese, and Julian Garritano scored the first three goals in a span of less than two minutes to give SHU a 5-3 lead. After a Cleveland State goal cut the deficit to one, Nick Albanese started a four-goal run at the 4:33 mark. After two Jurk tallies and a goal from Jake Giaquinto, the Pioneers had a 9-4 lead at halftime. 

Sacred Heart (8-5) kept the petal on the metal to start the second half. Tuttle and Saggese both scored in the first five minutes to push the lead to seven, 11-4, with 10:36 remaining in the third quarter. Jurk and Matt Posch also scored in the third quarter with the Pioneers taking a 13-6 lead into the fourth quarter. The senior sparked a 3-0 run to start the fourth quarter. His fourth goal of the game, along with scores from Garritano and Jake Wilson, gave SHU its largest lead of the game at 10, 17-7, with 10:44 to play. Connor O'Reilly scored his first goal of the season with 6:14 to go, with Trevor Johnson assisting for his first career point.

SHU outshot Cleveland State 53-27 and held a 35-24 edge in groundballs. The Pioneers won 16 of 31 faceoffs and were 3-for-5 on the extra man. Sacred Heart also clinched a Northeast Conference Tournament berth Saturday with Saint Joseph's defeating Wagner. This is the Pioneers' third NEC Tournament berth, and first since 2014.

The Pioneers close the regular season on Friday, April 28 at Wagner. Gametime is at 7 p.m.